Treatment for stimulant use disorder

What are the treatments for stimulant use disorder?

Several treatment approaches can help people quit or cut back on their stimulant use. There are also services to help people improve their health, even if they don’t want to stop using stimulants. Treatment and other help can happen many places, such as:

  • medical clinics
  • mental health programs
  • community-based drop-in centers
  • supportive housing
  • inpatient or outpatient addiction treatment programs

Different places offer different kinds of support and care. Be sure to ask what services are offered when deciding where to go.

Stimulants and Health handout and conversation guide

Stimulants and Health handout and online guideThe Handout:
The Stimulants and Health educational handout features talking points about motivations for use, health effects of stimulants, safer use tips, health care supports, and use reduction.

The Guide to Using the Handout:
This interactive online guide is designed for care teams—including harm reduction specialists, peers, outreach staff, clinicians, and others—to use when reviewing the Stimulants and Health handout with a client or patient. It offers information to help you discuss harm reduction, health goals, and treatment options with people who use stimulants.

Counseling and behavior change treatments

Counseling and other treatments that focus on behavior are currently the most effective treatments. These include:

  • Contingency management
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Community reinforcement approach

Contingency management

In contingency management a person gets small rewards for reaching goals. For example, a person might get a small gift card for showing up for a clinic visit or get a chance to win a bigger prize for a urine drug test that shows no recent drug use. Research shows that contingency management is one of the most effective treatments for stimulant use disorder (Ronsley et al., 2020).

Motivational interviewing

In motivational interviewing, a counselor helps a person identify changes they might want to make and the motivation and fears they have about that change. Working together, they explore why a person uses stimulants, why they might want to change (or why they’re unsure), and how a person might make changes successfully.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT helps identify patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. People learn skills to change unhelpful patterns, cope with cravings, or problem solve “high risk” situations to use.

Community Reinforcement Approach  (CRA)

CRA helps increase positive activities that compete with drug use. Similar to CBT, it helps a person build skills to cope, problem solve, and improve relationships.

Mental health counseling

Mental health counseling can help with issues such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and other issues that are often seen with stimulant use. Learn more about different types of counseling here.

Medications for stimulant use disorder

There are no FDA-approved medications to treat stimulant use disorder. There is evidence, however, that some mental health medications can be helpful for some people. These medications may not be right or helpful for everyone, so talk to your health care provider.

For more information, check out the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)’s Stimulant Use Disorder guideline.

Withdrawal management (“detox”)

Some people need a structured break from stimulants for a few days to get through early withdrawal.  While this can help the brain and body start to work better, detox is not considered “treatment.” Most people will need ongoing help to cope with cravings and learn new behaviors

Other approaches to help people

Some people use stimulants to help them manage other areas of their life. Addressing those challenges or needs could help reduce stimulant use. For example, someone may want help with:

  • Housing
  • Employment
  • Connecting with others/finding community
  • 12-step support (e.g., Crystal Meth Anonymous)
  • Health issues

There is also some evidence that exercise can help reduce stimulant use and improve health.

Resources